About 150,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with colon cancer this year. A third of them will die, but a new combination of drugs may stop the disease before it even starts.
"When they said, 'You have cancer,' I said, 'That can't be,'" said Ivelisse Page.
Page is a mother of four. Colon cancer was not part of her plan.
"Prayers are what's given me the peace and strength to keep going," said Page.
Colon cancer is the third deadliest cancer, but a combination of two drugs might be able to stop it before it starts.
"We are targeting these polyps, which are risk factors," said Eugene Gerner, PhD, director of the gastrointestinal cancer program at the Arizona Cancer Center.
Half of those over 50 will develop a colon polyp at some point in their lives. The clumps of cells can turn into cancer.
"If we could stop them, presumably the mortality due to colon cancer will also go down by more than 50 percent," said Gener.
The anti-inflammatory drug Sulindac and the cancer-fighting compound DFMO were tested on people with a history of polyps. It stopped them from coming back 95 percent of the time.
"I knew because of my age, I was at a higher risk," said Linda Leighton.
Leighton, a retired school teacher, had polyps removed from her colon previously so she enrolled in the study.
"My post screening came out that there were no polyps and I was very excited and hopeful," she said.
The new combination drug treatment is not yet approved by the FDA. More clinical trials are planned this year.
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